Nike Hoop Summit: For Dream Team-era babies, the NBA isn't just a dream

Enes Kanter (with ball) is from Turkey but can test himself against some of the best U.S. players competing for his high school in Southern California. For other international players seeking to determine the gap to the U.S. elite, events such as the Nike Hoop Summit are instructive. (Brent Wojahn/The Oregonian)

As a child, Robert Loe of New Zealand often fantasized about playing professional basketball. But his hopes stopped short of the NBA. The European leagues would have to do.

Through the years, as international teams began having more success against U.S. teams featuring NBA players, Loe's imagination expanded.

"I realized as I grew up," Loe, 18, said, "that I could play in the NBA."

For many international players his age, that expectation is more realistic than for any preceding generation.

The 6-foot-11 Loe and the rest of the World Select Team players for Saturday night's Nike Hoop Summit were born in 1991 and 1992, when the first "Dream Team" of NBA players was formed and emphatically won the gold medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics.

Since, international basketball has closed the gap on the United States. Competing in events such as the Nike Hoop Summit on Saturday night at the Rose Garden only reinforces the belief that the playing field is level.

"That's what is great about this event," World team and Australian national team coach Rob Beveridge said. "It shows these players what they are up against and what they need to do to compete."

The original Dream Team, which included NBA greats Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan and former Blazers guard Clyde Drexler, outscored their Olympics opponents by an average of 117.3 to 73.5.

At the time, the thought of such a team losing in international play appeared unlikely -- until it happened during the 2002 World Championships and the 2004 Olympics.

Nike Hoop Summit

What: Exhibition basketball game matching top high school seniors from the United States -- including Jefferson's Terrence Jones -- against a World Select Team of players 19 or younger.

Note: The game will not be televised live in the Portland area. FSN instead will show the Portland Beavers baseball game Saturday night. The Nike Hoop Summit will be shown in Portland at 2:30 a.m. and 9 p.m. Sunday.

World Select Team guard Jason Cadee, 18, from Australia, was born in 1991, the year the first Australian-born NBA player, Luc Longley, entered the league. That, along with the U.S. team's failures, reinforced Cadee's confidence.

"I think that after playing international tournaments, you kind of realize that you're not far off from where they are," Cadee said. "You do have a chance to get to where they are and to play with those guys."

International players attending prep schools in the United States has helped build confidence as well.

Center Enes Kanter, 17, from Turkey attends Stoneridge Prep in Simi Valley, Calif., and has committed to Kentucky. He said facing America's best at the high school level has helped him develop, and now he dreams of playing in the NBA.

But not all international players have that experience, which is why games such as the Hoop Summit are important to create a measuring stick for foreign players.

The United States team has won nine of the 12 Hoop Summit events. But the World team won last year 97-89 against a U.S. team that included John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins, two players who were headed to Kentucky and are widely projected to be top-five picks in this year's NBA draft.

Even failure on the international stage can help, Beveridge said. A great example of trial by fire, Beveridge said, is that of current Trail Blazers guard Patty Mills, from Australia.

Mills played on the 2006 World Select Team, which lost to the United States. In that game, Mills had eight points and six assists. But his counterpart on the U.S. team, point guard Ty Lawson, had 17 points and six assists.

"Ty Lawson destroyed him," Beveridge said.

Lawson went on to won a national championship with North Carolina and was a first-round pick in the 2009 draft. Mills went to work on his game, having seen up close what a future NBA guard played like.

"He went back to Australia, and he got in the gym and got stronger," Beveridge said. "That's what these events do for our international players. Now he's playing for the Blazers."

Beveridge thinks the gap between the best of the United States and the best of the rest of the world will close.

"I think in 18 years time probably close to 50 percent of the players in the league will be international players," he said. "And the NBA will probably have teams in Europe."